Major Grom: Plague Doctor

Vladimir Besedin, Artyom Gabrelyanov, and Oleg Chugunov during the film's presentation at IgroMir/Comic-Con 2017

Representatives of Bubble Studios have repeatedly stated that the short film Major Grom (2017) will be a test project before filming a full-length movie, which, if successful, would be followed by adaptations of other Bubble comics.[4][5] The film's plot recounts the struggle of "Major Grom" with a serial killer hiding under the mask of a plague doctor, which is the main story arc of the original comic book. In the scenario itself, the leaders of Bubble Studios plan to leave about 80% of the plot of the original story and add 20% of new content.[6] It was stated that Bubble Studios plans to attract American actors to the project, film it in English, and launch it internationally, but with a focus on the Western market.[7][8]

The short film Major Grom was shown at Comic-Con 2017

While the first teaser was released on September 2017, there was no news about production.

Like in the short film, to shoot the car chase scenes, the producers closed entire blocks in the city center of Saint Petersburg. Alternative routes for public traffic were developed. Especially for the film, the production team redesigned the look of the Russian police and developed a new, unique service uniform, service cars, and equipment.

Principal photography took place in September 2019; it was announced that the film was in the shooting stage on the streets of Saint Petersburg and was filmed by director Oleg Trofim. The first glimpse of the project included various details from the production, which were revealed to Russian Comic-Con critics in October 2019. Production was completed in December 2019.

After the initial publicity in 2017, there was no new information about the film for two years. On 5 October 2019, continuation of work on the film was announced at IgroMir / Comic-Con Russia. It was announced that the director had been replaced, and instead of Vladimir Besedin, Oleg Trofim was at the helm of the production. The role of Major Grom also changed from Aleksander Gorbatov (ru) to Tikhon Zhiznevskiy (ru).[9] Additionally, significant changes had been made to the script.[10]

It became known that Yandex would act as a strategic partner, receiving exclusive rights to online display on the KinoPoisk platform once the film is released.[11]

Echoing a scene from the film trailer where the Plague Doctor incites protesters against corruption and lawlessness in Russia to release paper airplanes on the street at 9:00 pm,[12][13][14]entrepreneur Pavel Durov arranged a flash mob after Roskomnadzor blocked internet messenger Telegram, encouraging people to release paper airplanes on the street at 7:00 pm on 22 April 2018.

On 22 April 2018, it was announced that the film would be released in October 2019.[15] The planned budget was to be about 5 million US dollars.[16] The announcement was made as part of a campaign in support of Telegram.[17]